| Topic: | Re:Reply | |
| Posted by: | Steven Rose | |
| Date/Time: | 08/09/26 23:17:00 |
| 25 years ago over 70% of Israelis were prepared to swap land for peace. Barak offered the Palestinians 97% of the West Bank in return for an end to the intifada, an offer turned down by Yasser Arafat. But now over 70% of Israelis oppose the creation of an independent Palestinian state. Only a minority support the settlements on religious grounds. Most Israelis, while they disapprove of settler violence, see the settlements as a means of preventing the creation of a state dominated by Hamas which would represent an existential threat to Israel. They feel vindicated in this view by polling evudence which suggests that if there were an election on the West Bank, the leader of Hamas, Al-Hiyyah, who helped to plan the massacre of October 7, would receive almost twice as many votes as Mahmud Abbas, the current 'miderate' President of the Palestinian Authority. |